Honor’s Robot Phone is better than a gimbal in a phone has any right to be

The Robot Phone, which launches coming successful China, doesn’t sound for illustration a bully thought — and not only because it’s not really a robot. Instead it’s a regular Android smartphone pinch its main camera installed connected a compact gimbal limb that unfolds from the phone’s rear. Cramming the balanced of a DJI Osmo Pocket wrong a smartphone sounds for illustration a awesome measurement to get the worst of some worlds, but aft an hr of testing, I’m cautiously optimistic that Honor has made this Frankenphone work.

This is simply a smaller gimbal than you’ll find connected DJI’s compact Osmo Pocket statement — Honor claims it’s the smallest successful the world. It still makes the telephone bulkier than normal, astatine 9.6mm heavy (not counting the chunky camera conception itself) and weighing 248g. Only the Samsung and Huawei trifolds are bigger, and my first belief was that the telephone felt oddly dated arsenic a result, contempt the cutting-edge camera inside.

The gimbal camera will walk astir of its life tucked wrong the phone’s camera module, protected by a mini integrative screen. Even folded away, the 200-megapixel, 1/1.28-inch-type sensor serves arsenic the phone’s main camera, joined by a 200-megapixel periscope telephoto and a 50-megapixel ultrawide.

But the existent nosy comes erstwhile the camera limb unfurls. First, you descent the integrative surface disconnected — manually — truthful it covers the phone’s different 2 cameras instead. Then, activate the gimbal done the software, and it springs into action. (If you effort to activate the gimbal without sliding distant the cover, the telephone won’t fto you.)

During erstwhile hands-off showcases, Honor has focused connected the “Robot” portion of the name, highlighting a cutesy chat interface powered by the company’s Yoyo AI assistant. The camera tin motion aliases shingle its “head,” creation to music, and make different expressive movements. It’s a tiny gimmick, but small more, and I was relieved that successful this briefing I was alternatively fixed the chance to put the camera to the test.

Having the gimbal makes it easier to return selfies utilizing the much powerful main camera, sprout astatine overseas angles while keeping the show head-on, and grounds video pinch soft panning and tracking. You power it utilizing the phone’s default camera app, which offers elemental controls successful its photograph and video tabs, and much analyzable options successful a dedicated pro video section. Honor has besides thrown successful the nosy action to return a panoramic selfie, the gimbal spinning astir to return aggregate photos and stitch them together.

The 3-axis gimbal has astir 360 degrees of activity and a assortment of search modes, including FPV, rotation shot, ace steady, and subject-tracking that tin observe group arsenic good arsenic objects (and useful successful video calls too, though I’m not judge if thing beyond Weibo is supported). There are nary further beingness controls, truthful you person to usage an onscreen joystick for manual adjustments, which is simply a small finicky compared to dedicated hardware. Then again, the 6.3-inch telephone surface is simply a overmuch easier measurement to navigate settings and menus than an Osmo Pocket’s mini display.

That’s adjuvant since Honor has packed successful plentifulness of options. In summation to settings for illustration solution and framework rate, you tin sprout successful image aliases landscape, set the velocity of the gimbal aliases the sensitivity of the joystick, move facet ratio, and toggle attraction peaking connected the display. Thanks to Honor’s business pinch camera institution Arri, you tin besides grounds successful a assortment of different film-inspired looks, on pinch Arri’s ain LogC3 format.

An hr wasn’t capable clip to afloat measure the gimbal’s performance, but I did get a sense. Video felt a small little unchangeable than I’m utilized to from this year’s Osmo Pocket 4, but not by much, which is awesome fixed really overmuch smaller the setup is. A fewer minutes of sustained signaling is capable to make the full telephone get beautiful hot, but that’s existent of DJI’s gimbal cameras too.

I person a speedy clip of trial footage from my clip pinch the phone, showing immoderate elemental panning from the main camera mode’s virtual joystick — I would person recorded thing much exciting, but I wasn’t expecting to beryllium allowed to people the footage!

Photos look to use from the gimbal too. The stabilization tin thief support the camera dependable betwixt the aggregate exposures that modern phones routinely stitch together for each photograph you take. It was a bright, sunny time erstwhile I tested the phone, but erstwhile I stepped into a adjacent church, it did an awesome occupation pinch the dimmer room and backlit stained solid windows. Between the reasonably ample sensor and the other stabilization, this could beryllium 1 of the amended phones astir for photos successful acheronian conditions.

The different cameras look awesome capable too, a earthy fresh for a telephone that has flagship specs crossed the board. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, includes up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and has a important 7,060mAh silicon-carbon battery. It astir apt needs it, fixed the other powerfulness drain of the gimbal. The chunky, functional creation connection is the only existent giveaway that this is thing different than a flagship slab phone, astatine slightest until that camera unfolds.

Still, location are evident reasons not to bargain the Robot Phone. The first is that you astir apt can’t: Honor is only launching it successful China, and has said it has nary plans to merchandise it elsewhere. That mightiness alteration successful a early iteration.

Honor besides wouldn’t show maine up of clip really overmuch the telephone will cost, but I’m going to spell up and conjecture it’ll beryllium much than simply buying a bully telephone and a abstracted Osmo Pocket, aliases the cheaper (if bulkier) action of a standalone gimbal to clasp your phone. That’s the classical foldable problem excessively (it’s for illustration a telephone positive a tablet for substantially much than the costs of both!). You’ll person to beryllium consenting to salary a existent premium to harvester those 2 gadgets into one. The benefits whitethorn beryllium worthy it for some, for illustration livestreamers who want to beryllium capable to sprout unchangeable smartphone video and watercourse it directly, but astir group would apt beryllium amended served by abstracted products.

The biggest interest is durability though. Honor says the telephone has an IP54 standing for protection and particulate and h2o erstwhile the camera is afloat stowed, but that doesn’t use erstwhile the gimbal is raised. Even closed, this is simply a small little reliable than different flagship phones. That’s existent of dedicated gimbal cameras too, but those aren’t apt to beryllium exposed to imaginable harm astir arsenic often arsenic your smartphone. Factor successful the added consequence of harm from drops, the imaginable for thing pinch moving parts to spell wrong, and the presumably prohibitive costs of immoderate repairs that autumn extracurricular Honor’s one-year warranty, and the Robot Phone is simply a large bet for anyone to buy.

Do the tradeoffs make sense? For me, astir apt not. For immoderate master contented creators, maybe.

I’m still not convinced it makes consciousness to compression a afloat gimbal limb wrong a smartphone — Honor’s engineers were truthful preoccupied pinch whether aliases not they could, yadda yadda yadda — but this feels for illustration conscionable astir the champion type of the thought anyone could beryllium expected to make. It’s bulky, and fragile, and astir apt excessively costly by half. But it does things that nary different telephone camera can, and it mostly seems to do them well, while being a small amended than astir phones astatine selfies, and debased ray photos, and signaling dependable video. Just… don’t telephone it a robot, okay?

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge